The Measurement and Expression of Values for Public Goods

衡量人们对公共或非市场商品--或这些商品的损失--的价值，在公共政策决策和条例的效益-成本分析以及环境损害责任评估中发挥着越来越大的作用。这些价值的一个广泛使用的衡量标准，公共产品的支付意愿判断(WTP)，似乎容易受到一些偏见和无关的影响，特别是当它是由调查工具引起的时候。一个例子是嵌入效应，在这种效应中，对一种商品(如备灾)的评估取决于是否首先评估了包含该商品(环境服务)的整个项目。这项研究将进行问卷研究，旨在分离WTP的关键特征，并特别关注道德规范的作用。将探索其他启发方法，如对货物的直接评级，以期了解如何实现公正的评估。调查的其他变量将包括背景提供、选择规则的类型、商品类型(环境或消费者)、受影响的其他人的数量、支付工具的公平性以及对其他人反应的预期。

The measurement of people's values for public or non-marketed goods - or for the loss of these goods - is playing an increasing role in benefit-cost analysis for public policy decisions and regulations and in assessment of liability for environmental damage. A widely used measure of these values, judgment of willingness to pay (WTP) for public goods, seems to be susceptible to a number of biases and irrelevant influences, particularly when it is elicited by a survey instrument. An example is the embedding effect, in which the valuation of a good such as disaster preparedness depends on whether the entire program containing that good (environmental services) has been evaluated first. The research will conduct questionnaire studies designed to isolate crucial features of WTP with particular attention to the role of moral norms. Alternative elicitation methods, such as direct ratings of goods, will be explored, with a view to understanding how unbiased evaluation might be achieved. Other variables for investigation will include provision of context, type of choice rule, type of good (environmental or consumer), number of other people affected, fairness of the payment vehicle, and expectation of others' responses.